by Monica Chamness
Staff Writer
By mid-month, LaVilla will see another business open its doors.
Construction on the 18,600 square-foot Harmony Dental Laboratory started in September and is expected to be complete by mid-March when the company will move from its current Riverside location.
“We like the area,” said Tom Gildersleeve, one of the partners. “What we’re seeing with the City projects is they’re creating a great place to have a business.”
The City has been especially helpful to Gildersleeve and his business partners, Dan Scharman and Garrett Smith. Through the Downtown Development Authority and, subsequently, the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and City Council, Gildersleeve landed an economic development grant from the Northwest Trust Fund to build the new laboratory.
“We had some customers who expressed interest in this area,” he said. “Especially with the courthouse project, I think this will become an extension to downtown.”
Their business is primarily local and regional dental appliance manufacturing — dentures, implants, crowns and bridges. Gildersleeve started the firm three years ago by acquiring two existing, smaller labs. Since then, the company has expanded from four staff members to 70, outgrowing its Gilmore Street location. While searching for a larger location, they received a call from the DDA. Eighteen months ago, the DDA issued a Request for Proposal for some City-owned lots in LaVilla and thought of Harmony.
“We had originally looked at the Brooklyn area,” said Gildersleeve. “That’s where we were introduced to the downtown development process. After reviewing our project, they [the DDA] suggested we look at a site over here. We were working with Al Battle [DDA managing director] and he identified this site.”
Ample parking, quick access to I-95, I-10 and downtown persuaded the partners to follow Battle’s advice. And the DDA was pleased with the jobs Harmony would bring to LaVilla. Harmony has averaged an addition of 15-20 employees each year and plans to continue that growth curve.
Harmony will occupy all of the space at the site. Approximately 10,000 square feet will be leased, though no tenants have been finalized. Ultimately, the company would like to occupy the whole building.
Harmony plans to build a dental educational center to develop personnel. Phase two will be a dentist-directed facility. It is slated to open by the end of the year.
“For us, it’s not so much a money maker as it is a resource for the community,” he said. “Our interest is spreading awareness about dentistry. Hopefully, the educational facility will attract people to downtown. Right now we’re in conversations with two or three dentists. There’s a lot of techniques in dentistry where the hands-on aspect of working with a product is important. It will be set up to have a group of 10-12 dentists actually seeing what’s going on in a small group setting asking the clinician or the expert about the product or technique.
“Right now, if that happens in Jacksonville, it has to be done in a lecture format with 75-100 people. We hope to attract dentists throughout the country to use the facility. There is no other facility like that between Orlando and Jacksonville.”
Currently, the building is complete except for some minor interior work and landscaping.
“One positive about LaVilla is that the City has fairly strict guidelines as far as development standards and landscaping standards,” said Gildersleeve. “So there is a certain uniformity, a minimum standard that you have to uphold. From a property point of view, it sure makes a difference.”